When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I'm slipping. #MariaCallas

Music should be essentially simple and upon simplicity and beauty of line it can become great. #MariaCallas

In other words, sing exactly as it's written, nothing more, nothing less, which is the phrase that I call straight jacketing, faster infinitely strictly how the composer wrote it. #MariaCallas

I don't think much of my talent. Uh, I didn't even think I had a voice... I always used to sing for pleasure. I never even dreamed of having to have a career as a singer. #MariaCallas

They have taught me, and life has taught me that the last act is the most important, because, no matter how much and how well you've sung on the very few one or two or three to four first acts. #MariaCallas

Singers have to go through the same technique as instrumentals; a violinist a pianist or any instrumentalist has to learn his reading and writing. We use our body and vocal chords instead of an instrument. #MariaCallas

The Metropolitan, like all of the other opera houses, do offer me every year a contract. I would specifically ask for a very fine conductor... lots of rehearsals... #MariaCallas

Being honest is a hell of a price to pay, you might be... misunderstood, hated, attacked and I have not been able to fight back. It hurts... because it is unjust, the world is full of unjustness... #MariaCallas

The critics said that I was tired at the end of Traviata but I took it as a compliment because I struggled to find this tired quality for her and it's dangerous. #MariaCallas

What am I? Is she only machines singing? No, she's a human being. I need help too. Life they say is terrible. Of course life is terrible, if we make it that way. #MariaCallas

The characterization of Italian music is always a flowing movement, no matter how slow things goes, no matter how slow the rhythm. #MariaCallas

I was always too mature for my age - and not very happy. I had no young friends. I wish I could go back to those days. If I could only live it all again, how I would play and enjoy other girls. What a fool I was. #MariaCallas

I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not a devil, either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged. #MariaCallas

It's a terrible thing to go through life thinking that you have a rock on your side when you haven't. #MariaCallas

We cannot modernize opera too much because as it is, we must accept it, which is old-fashioned. We must give it a bit of fresh air and cut certain lengthy music repetitions. #MariaCallas

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point. #MariaCallas

I am embarrassed by compliments. I cannot have the same perception of myself as the public has. I cannot judge myself and I have a hard time realizing what I have done. But if you manage to persuade and to thrill the public then you have won. #MariaCallas

I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best. #MariaCallas

If I have stepped on some people at times because I am at the top, it couldn't be helped. What should I do if someone gets hurt... retire? #MariaCallas

[On Trills] A trill is a necessity this is the equipment that goes with our instrument. In these operas that we preform abbellimenti must be dealt with physically and technically. One must have these to serve the music and be an honest musician. #MariaCallas

I belong to the givers. I want to give a little happiness even if I haven’t had much for myself. Music has enriched my life and, hopefully - through me, a little - the public’s. If anyone left an opera house feeling more happy and at peace, I achieved my purpose. #MariaCallas

The public is a monster and that is why I am not eager to return to the stage. #MariaCallas

Only when I was singing did I feel loved. #MariaCallas

Trills are necessary and they have to be well performed. Take Trovatore; Verdi and Donizetti used a lot of trills. They used them to express feelings so a trill is necessary as a technical skill for an interpreter. #MariaCallas

Rehearsals absolutely must sing in full voice for your own sake, for your colleagues sake and the main thing is to test your own possibilities. #MariaCallas

You should wear longer skirts slacks on a theater. The public that looks at you from down there sees a little more that you might want. #MariaCallas

This is what we learn from old people. What I learned from old Sarafine to always prepare a phrase to always dig deeper into the what the composer wanted and how he felt and how he used to struggle on one phrase to to show the horror or the love or the poetry. #MariaCallas

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point. #MariaCallas

I don't need the money, dear. I work for art. #MariaCallas

If you take the trouble to really listen with your soul in with your ears you will find every gesture there and it's so true. #MariaCallas

Opera is dead. It's outdated. And there's nothing you can do about it to change it. As singers if the composer did something bad, it's your responsibility to give it some coloratura, but that's all you can do. #MariaCallas

Music should be essentially simple and upon simplicity and beauty of line it can become great. #MariaCallas

I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity. #MariaCallas

What is there in life if you do not work? There is only sensation, and there are only a few sensations— you cannot live on them. You can only live on work, by work, through work. How can you live with self-respect if you do not do things as well as lies in you? #MariaCallas

What am I? Is she only machines singing? No, she's a human being. I need help too. Life they say is terrible. Of course life is terrible, if we make it that way. #MariaCallas

ART is domination. It's making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours. #MariaCallas

You always have to be the performer and function of the composer that the public will listen to and you must make it success. #MariaCallas

My Traviata has changed frequently my Norma more or less not much. #MariaCallas

I cannot switch my voice. My voice is not like an elevator going up and down. #MariaCallas

I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best. #MariaCallas

All those little notes all the legatos all the everything that comes with music is what you call technique. An instrumentalist knows how to make his notes well with the proper intonation because intonation is also a necessity to technique. #MariaCallas

When you learn to really become a musician after a singer, you have to put your instrument to the service of music. #MariaCallas

I never lost my voice, but I lost strength in my diaphragm. I lost my bravery and fearlessness. As a result... my voice wobbled because I overstrained it. #MariaCallas

On the whole there are two people in me. I would like to be Maria, but there is the Callas that I have to live up to. #MariaCallas

I don't know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over. #MariaCallas

Real friends are very special, but you have to be careful because sometimes you have a friend and you think they are made of rock, then suddenly you realise they're only made of sand. #MariaCallas

The critics said that I was tired at the end of Traviata but I took it as a compliment because I struggled to find this tired quality for her and it's dangerous. #MariaCallas

I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not the devil either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged. #MariaCallas

I don’t like listening to myself – I don’t like the kind of voice I have. #MariaCallas

You learn the role. You will roughly learn it. As I say, because these goes in stages, you cannot expect to learn it immediately. You have to give it time to be learned to be matured. #MariaCallas